Mausoleum of Paradise
by Dawnlight-6
Summary: What awaits in the heart of old Europe's dark world of nightmares? Inspired by the Sailor Moon Vampire Musicals.


Author's Note

A ficlet that ties into the 2000 Summer Sailor Moon Musical, _Decisive Battle / The Forest of Transylvania – A New Arrival! The Soldiers Who Protect Chibimoon_. Written for the HaruMichi Tumblr Circle June 2015 prompt, Senshi Civil War.

* * *

Already Haruka was starting to go cold. It was relentless, creeping, like the oncoming shadows of night.

Michiru watched in the faint glow of the moon as Haruka tossed and turned with the dreams blackening her heart, knowing, as only someone can who has already walked through hell, the feel of corruption eating into Haruka's soul.

At a touch Haruka awakened with a half-gasp, the wildness of ancient forests in her eyes.

"Michiru," she whispered, breathing with the harsh desperation of a dying creature who feared every breath might be her last.

"I'm here." With soothing touches Michiru calmed her, and for now, for now, that was enough to bring her back. Her skin still held the scent of the wind, the scent of freedom; the glimmer of clear blue stars reignited deep in her gaze.

"Michiru." Haruka caught her hand as it passed. "When the time comes, promise that you'll show me no mercy."

"Haruka, we don't know for sure—"

"Of course we know," Haruka cut her off impatiently. "I'm becoming what you once became.

A demon. And I didn't hesitate, did I? I was prepared to cut you down with my sword in cold blood. So when you have to, do the same to me. Please."

Michiru kissed the back of Haruka's hand, tasting her, letting her lips linger, too many ghosts rising of other nights just like this, goodbyes said with kisses and touches and soft cries before meeting bloody battle in the dawn. Her voice choked slightly as she said, "Even in demons there is love. As a demon I still loved you."

"And how would a demon show her love?" Fingers like ice slid over Michiru's thigh, sceptical, wistful, longing to be convinced.

Hot breath gusted from Michiru's lungs, close to where Haruka's wound still festered. She closed her eyes, a trickle of guilty tears wrung from the painful twinges of her heart. "I wanted to drag you into the dark with me."

Haruka gave a mirthless laugh. "See? I don't want to become someone who would do that to you. I want you to live, Michiru. Follow the light."

"Don't we already live in the dark?"

"No. We have the light of the moon. The light of our Princess."

Even now, Haruka's eyes were filled with hope. Hope for the bright future she imagined for all those she loved after she was gone. But Michiru didn't, couldn't, lie to her right now, couldn't do Haruka the disservice of pretending she meant less than she did.

One hand drifting over Haruka's too-pale cheek, feeling her own eyes brighten even in the midst of her misery, she murmured, "you are the only light that shines for me in the dark."

So familiar, yet so strange, the feel of Haruka's cold body as she nestled closer, as a shiver passed through her not like the kind Michiru was used to.

"Let me feel your warmth, one last time." There was the husk of tears in Haruka's voice as her lips hovered above Michiru's, tentative and just out of reach.

"Always, Haruka," Michiru said, and brought Haruka's mouth down on hers.

* * *

It wasn't lost on Haruka that Michiru hadn't yet agreed to kill her. Every day she could feel herself slipping away a little more, each night she dreamed of a forest where the ground was frozen even in summer, thawed only by an outpouring of hot, running blood. The strangeness was growing inside of her, and Haruka knew she had to get guarantees while she still had the presence of mind to do so.

At the airport, it was hard to get Michiru alone, but eventually Haruka managed it, pulling her into a corner away from the others and breathing into her ear, "you're being selfish Michiru, wanting to keep me alive at any cost. You must give me your assurance—"

Michiru's eyes flashed at her, imperious. "If you change, Haruka…" Something came over her, a slight sag of the shoulders, a thin hopelessness in her voice, "you won't walk away from the battle alive."

Haruka knew that tone of resentful certainty. Michiru had seen her death, and if Michiru had seen it, it was sure to come true.

With a smile, she cradled Michiru's cheek and tilted her head up, not letting the cowardly throb of fear show in her gaze.

"I don't regret it, Michiru. Not one moment of our life together."

Michiru returned Haruka's smile with lips that trembled. "Neither do I, Haruka."

And she embraced Haruka's cold, dying body until it was time to go, into the heart of old Europe's dark world of nightmares.

* * *

It was brutal. Soldiers killed each other while their princess watched with tears streaming down her face, and Neptune hadn't lied but she hadn't told the truth either. Uranus didn't walk away from the battle alive, but she didn't die by Neptune's hand. Neptune would have died by hers if not for Pluto's intervention, and perhaps it was just as well that Uranus killed her too in the process, for they both knew that Neptune would have never forgiven Pluto for Uranus's death.

And then all of them together were in the river of death on the way to hell, cursed and fallen soldiers condemned for killing their own.

* * *

The warmth of rekindled blood flowed fast through her veins, her cheeks were burning, her skin was salty with sweat. There wasn't enough breath; there could never be enough breath when Michiru touched her like this, unerringly watching Haruka's face for every reaction.

"Don't." Michiru's words were so soft they barely rose above Haruka's ragged breathing. "Don't ever leave me like that again."

Haruka tangled a hand into the heavy fall of Michiru's aquamarine hair, eyes more gentle than the rebellion in her smile. "As if death would be enough to stop me from finding my way back to you."

Burying her face in Haruka's chest, Michiru made a sound that might have been a laugh or a sob. "Oh Haruka," she sighed. "You're so warm."


End file.
